College Examination - 1

"Alright, for all examination participants, please bring your documents and go to your assigned venues." an elderly man shouted, his voice reverberating in the entrance area, entering into the ears of the participants.

The applicants began to enter the campus and headed towards their respective testing venues. One of these applicants was a bit eye-catching, not due to his temperament, but due to his looks. He was fair-skinned with wavy hair, covering his forehead, his eyes looking around in curiosity and wonder. However, when one would look at him, the first thought that would pop up was: What a young boy! He couldn't be older than 8 years? My younger brother has the same look as he does!

That's right. The boy being oogled and scrutinized with questioning and curious gazes was Xander.

"Huh, Novera building, room 212. Is this a second-floor room?" Xander muttered. He recalled his past life's experience in college; three-digit rooms usually indicated 2 things: the floor where the room is, and the room number. He didn't take note of the weird gazes the other applicants were giving him, focusing on the task at hand.

He asked someone in the building who was responsible for guiding the applicants and was able to reach the Novera building after 5 to 10 minutes of walking. Xander headed upstairs, and looking around for a bit, found the right classroom and entered, taking a seat. There were a few people already present in the room.

After an hour, the room was already filled up. The test proctor was already present and began the first testing phase.

"Alright applicants, open the CommLink in your tables and type in the following details..."

"... The analytical test is to be accomplished within 50 minutes. The test has been designed to be completed within 50 minutes based on the standards of our school students. After completing the test, you may proceed to the next testing ground."

"The test begins... Now!"

Xander began to answer the questions in an inhuman speed as possible. He didn't dare use his abilities on time warping as it may affect his qualifications if caught red-handed.

There were 100 questions, and on average, he answered it in 3-4 items per minute. In 30 minutes, he was done with the analytical test. He immediately submitted the results to the proctor.

The questions weren't that challenging to Xander, as these questions were at most, below collegiate level difficulty. For him who had a strong intellectual foundation who already began studying collegiate level research papers as well as graduate research papers, this was a cinch.

The questions were quite diverse, however, which wasn't within his expectation. Besides the additional biotechnology, mathematics, and physics questions, there were questions on history, sociology, and even psychology.

The proctor was a bit surprised, thinking to himself that another one had given up so fast, but remembering his duties, he reminded Xander that he should proceed to the gymnasium room after giving him the first certificate of completion.

"The certificate of completion merely indicated that the applicant managed to complete the test within the set period of time, and was used to proceed to the second test. Without it, one cannot proceed to the next testing area." The proctor said, repeating the necessary lines to inform the students about the document and the process for the next test.

Xander nodded in reply, and headed to the gymnasium.

Although normally, proctors can't check the answers of the applicants as they are submitted immediately for checking, the proctor in charge of the room where Xander tested in was someone with a high clearance in Grand Hyatt University.

With a curious gaze on Xander's back, the proctor turned his head and opened the interface in his CommLink, and immediately utilized his clearance to access his records. Within a few minutes, he requested for the score of the first applicant, Xander Cloverfield, and was shocked to see his results.

Multiple choice section... perfect!

True or false section... perfect!

Essay section... Outstanding!

Psychological analysis: Stable and focused!

Score rating: S+

Recommended for the Advanced Track Program!

When the proctor began reading the essay answers, he was almost scared out of the living daylights, letting out a muffled gasp.

"Was t-this... an answer an incoming college student should have? This looked like someone talking to a research conference and knew what they were talking about." the proctor mumbled.

He later shook his head, and closed the results. He continued sitting by the desk, acting as a proctor. He knew he met one of the soon to be freaks of the university. What made him curious was why the essay grading system only showed Outstanding, rather than perfect. With those answers… the proctor was visibly confused.

He once again utilized his clearance to request for re-grading for Xander's answers. He felt that he deserved a rating higher than S+… hmm, maybe he could apply for the SS- or the SS+ rating, if he could convince them…

Xander, unknown to him that he just awed the proctor, moved on and he headed to the next test, the scientific analysis. According to the experience of his parents, the scientific analysis is simple, as it measures the physical attributes of the body and its aptitude towards magical essences. At the same time, the test takers are to go in a virtual reality where they are to show off their fighting capability through a simulated magic test.

Xander was not in a rush as he continued towards the gymnasium room. Upon entering, there were no other participants. The whole gymnasium floor was littered with numerous, pod-like cabins. His entrance garnered the attention of the proctors in charge of the testing. It wasn't surprising, given that Xander literally looks like a child and is one.

He approached one of them and showed the certificate of completion, after which, the proctor merely nodded and instructed him to go into one of the pods.

Upon entering the pod and putting the helmet on, he immediately saw the space around him morph into a mountainous area. Immediately, he felt a wave of energy pass through him, seemingly laying bare his entirety for anyone to see.

However, he was only momentarily surprised, before calming again, since he knew it was only the customary scan. With the help of what he had learned from the servers of the government, this virtual machine pod was easily tricked by Xander into thinking that he only had the 5-elements as his primary elements, and the Space-time elements completed hidden, while showing a power of Elite-1.

He also increased the affinity of the elements to his body to the highest, legal-looking set of data possible. A pity he couldn't just hack into the machine with the help of the system, since he is also observed by the proctors outside. If he wasn't mistaken, two of the proctors were quite sensitive concerning technology, and if he made a tiny mistake, they might still be able to find it. Then again, he was lazy to do it, since he could control the information he wanted the machines to detect, anyway.

What was great about this testing machine is it only gives the primary elements the user has, as well as the rating for the affinity towards these elements; no numbers, no issue. All the data are deleted and cleared after the rating is released as well, thus giving the tester privacy of their personal information.

After the magic aptitude and element affinity screenings, the final test was a simulated magical test. After all, no matter how good you are in theory, if it cannot be executed in reality, what was its point? At this point, the participant is asked to fight a series of targets, whether physically or using magic. The physical fight can be done by the tester using elemental energy to amplify his physical attributes for a period of time by several degrees. Using magic to fight is more complex because it assumes you already reached Elite class and has at least a spell or two. Interestingly, it is done in virtual reality to ensure safety of the students, and also because it is quite hard to find a native land that doesn't have a trace of modernization or utilized by nearby human, elf, or dwarf settlements.

This part was previously contested, but virtual reality had already reached a level of 99.99% likeness to reality, even having the capacity to actually simulate what is happening in the body when casting spells.

The reason for this is that virtual reality here is not managed by just some gigantic quantum supercomputer, but also involves the usage of ancient magic found in the ruins. When he saw the pictures of the runic writing on the magic circles from the governments classified research documents, he immediately recognized the runes: It was identical to the runes unique to time and space magic spells that he had made, although they were more crude-looking and flimsier than his.

If someone would read those runes without any preemptive actions, they would probably become crazy or die at the spot.

The runes, however, made Xander postulate at that time that there were time and space magicians in Eteria, but maybe they existed from a distant past? After all, the recorded history of Eteria was more than 1 million years. Another possibility is that they merely left traces in the planet, but was not a native of it…

The world turned gray around Xander, and immediately, the scenery changed. From the mountainous area, he was transported into a grassy field. Upon transferring, Xander had a question in mind: how do they replicate the body of the tester then? Is it all bits and data, then imbued with magic? Or is there life-death magic involved? Could every instance of a tester in virtual reality be bits of data that gained life, but no sentience, under the command of the tester?

Xander didn't immerse too much on the details for now and had focused on the task at hand: he was to destroy all 50 targets within the time limit. According to the information given to him by the proctor, the faster he accomplishes the task the higher the ranking score.

Without wasting any time, he began to launch succeeding attacks towards the moving targets, which were dire wolves.

Combining Void Wind and 5 Elements Foundation, he began to showcase his elemental affinities.

"Fire Ball"

"Water Ball"

"Wooden Thorns"

"Air Blade"

"Metal Chains"

"Eroding Miasma"

"Chain Lightning"

"Eternal Iceberg"

...

Xander cast 15 different spells in the span of a second, with each cast of a spell hit each and every target accurately, missing no targets at all. In 10 seconds, all of the targets were down, and Xander's stamina and magic reserves were unaffected. If he was to accurately calculate it, it would be a consumption of one-millionth of 1 unit of his energy, maybe even less as he had immediately recovered. He only managed to complete it in 10 seconds because the spells he launched had an area of effect.

"Hmm, it seems there's still a need to practice more on casting spells..." Xander muttered. After all, his spell casting was boosted by the Void Wind skill, allowing him to cast chantlessly and shortened the casting time for each spell. What Xander wanted was to increase the number of spells he could cast in a second.

Although Xander seemed disappointed with his own performance, in actuality, the people outside were surprised by the efficiency Xander showed, as they could see the results real time. Even those observing the data being projected in the real world were shocked.

"This...he's not cheating is he?" a proctor stammered, quite surprised with the result. He still couldn't believe that the test they designed was easily accomplished in 30 seconds. This was one of the proctors who were quite sensitive with technology, immediately identifying if someone was tampering physically or in terms of code. However, his reaction was brought about by the lack of any tampering when he saw the performance Xander gave.

"Hmph, how could he even cheat! It's obvious we have a genius in our hands!" a man wearing glasses rebuked the proctor. It was the head of admissions, Joseph Feng.

"From the looks of it, he almost instantaneously casted his spells…Wait, isn't he only Elite-1? How many spells did he cast?"

"Sir, we detected numerous elements that fall under the 5-elements category, and all of the spells seem to have the same signature source. However, to check the situation frame by frame, we need to wait for the testing to be finished."

!!

"You mean? All of them are from one kind of spell?"

"So how do we grade him? Direct admission? Or does he still need to pass the last test?" another proctor asked, as they were quite at a loss.

Why where they at a loss? Its because the minimum time to accomplish this test was found to be 4 minutes, and they would get an S ranking for their completion. Yet, Xander completed the test in less than 30 seconds. What grade should they give him? SS? SSS? SSS+?